Saturday night the Philadelphia Wings (2-1) defeated the New York Riptide (0-5) 15-12 in front of 5,019 at NYCB Live. It was their second win in a row ahead of their home opener this Friday at Wells Fargo Center.
Kevin Buchanan started the Wings off quick by scoring 33 seconds into the contest. But the Riptide started to click on both sides of the ball. Jake Fox’s first NLL goal would get New York rolling at 3:08 and this would start a three goal run and give the Riptide a 3-1 lead.
Matt Rambo and Brett Hickey would score 23 seconds apart to tie the game, but that wouldn’t last long as Dan Lomas would score with the extra attacker as a delay of game penalty was to be called on Philadelphia. Josh Currier tied the game at four on the power play with a nasty dunk goal.
The second quarter would be all Philadelphia. They would outscore New York 6-2. The offense in this quarter would be led by Kiel Matisz and Trevor Baptiste who scored two goals each. This gives Baptiste three goals on the young season The defense for Philadelphia was huge as well by limiting New York on second opportunities. Goalie Zach Higgins came up big by stopping the Riptide from in close on many occasions and keep his team in front 10-6.
But the Riptide wouldn’t give up easily. With 2:57 remaining in the third quarter the Riptide would go on a five-goal run, led by Tyson Gibson (3G/2A) who would score all three of his goals on the night during this run that would tie the game at 12 with just over eight minutes left in regulation.
General manager and head coach Regy Thorpe said post game that he’s “proud of our team efforts tonight. We worked on focusing on playing a full 60 minutes all week long, and we were close tonight. We have another divisional game coming up, and we have to work on playing a full 60. I think we took some good steps tonight. We’re a new team. We’re going to keep playing and learn from the film. They’re a great group of guys. Coaches believe in them, the organization believes in them, but unfortunately, we’re at 0-5.”
Philadelphia would score the final three of the game, including an empty net goal by Steph Charbonneau.
The last time a Philadelphia Wings team had a winning record, you have to go back to the 2013-14, their final season before moving to Connecticut when they defeated Buffalo 17-13. The last time they won two straight on the road was January 22 & 28, 2011 when they defeated Colorado 11-10 and Boston 11-5.
Brett Hickey & Josh Currier led the offense with hat tricks. Kevin Crowley (1G/6A), Matt Rambo (1G/5A), Kiel Matisz (2G/2A) also chipped in. Trevor Baptiste would score twice and and win 17 of 31 faceoffs against Alex Woodall.
Alex Buque would stop 46 of 60 shots for the loss and Zach Higgins would stop 37-49 for the win.
Philadelphia opens their home slate of game this Friday at 7 p.m. as the Vancouver Warriors come to town.
